For the Visigothic rulers, see Balt dynasty. For the ethnic German inhabitants of the Baltics, see Baltic Germans.
"Baltic tribes" redirects here. For the 2018 documentary film, see Baltic Tribes (film).
This article is about the Baltic-speaking peoples, an ethnic group. It is not to be confused with the similarly named ethnic group inhabiting Kashmir, the Balti people.
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Balts
Countries with a predominantly Baltic population
Total population
6.5–7.0 million (including the diaspora)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Lithuania
2,397,418[3]
Latvia
1,175,902[4]
Languages
Baltic languages
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; minority Eastern Orthodoxy and Baltic neopaganism
The Balts or Baltic peoples (Lithuanian: baltai, Latvian: balti) are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea who speak Baltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-day Lithuanians (including Samogitians) and Latvians (including Latgalians) — all East Balts — as well as the Old Prussians, Curonians, Sudovians, Skalvians, Yotvingians and Galindians — the West Balts — whose languages and cultures are now extinct.
The Balts are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the lower Vistula and southeast shore of the Baltic Sea and upper Daugava and Dnieper rivers, and which over time became differentiated into West and East Balts. In the fifth century CE parts of the eastern Baltic coast began to be settled by the ancestors of the Western Balts, whereas the East Balts lived in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. In the first millennium CE, large migrations of the Balts occurred. By the 13th and 14th centuries, the East Balts shrank to the general area that the present-day Balts and Belarusians inhabit.
Baltic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained.[5][better source needed]
^"Lietuviai Pasaulyje" (PDF), osp.stat.gov.lt
^Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^"Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas". osp.stat.gov.lt.
^"Iedzīvotāji pēc tautības gada sākumā 1935 - 2023". data.stat.gov.lv.
Latgalians) — all East Balts — as well as the Old Prussians, Curonians, Sudovians, Skalvians, Yotvingians and Galindians — the West Balts — whose languages...
The Dnieper Balts were a subgroup of the Balts that lived in the Dnieper river basin for millennia until the Late Middle Ages, when they were partly destroyed...
Eastern Balts would burn the remains of the dead and scatter the ashes on the ground or nearby rivers and lakes. It is also known that Eastern Balts were...
Street Journal. Retrieved 26 March 2015. Braw, Elisabeth (5 May 2015). "Balts Say Russian Navy Bullying Undersea Cable Crews". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved...
The Balt dynasty or Balth dynasty (Latin: Balti or Balthi, i.e., Balts) was the first ruling family of the Visigoths from 395 until 531. They led the Visigoths...
the little-known Pomeranian Balts or Western Balts proper, in the area now known as Pomerania. Most of the Western Balts arose from the West Baltic barrow...
Sebei-), which are unusual to the anthroponymy of the East Balts. Gimbutas, Marija (1963). The Balts. Ancient peoples and places. Vol. 33. London: Thames and...
according to him the common genetic structure which contrasts East Slavs and Balts from other populations may suggest that the pre-Slavic substrate of the...
Lithuania to present new 'Balts award'". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. September 22, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2018. "The first Balts Award from the Latvian...
Vera Aleksandrovna Balts (1866–1943), sometimes published as V.A. Balts, or Baltz, was a geologist and soil scientist. Balts was one of the first female...
Swedish extradition of Baltic soldiers, or simply the Extradition of the Balts (Swedish: Baltutlämningen), was a controversial political event that took...
Paul Balthazar Getty (/ˈɡɛti/; born January 22, 1975) is an American actor, musician, and a member of the Getty family. His acting debut was in Lord of...
Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast...
BaltGaz Group (known before 2013 as Baltic Gas Company) is one of the biggest manufacturers and suppliers of heating gas equipment in Russia. The head...
largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages, a branch...
July 30, 2005. Tarasov I. The balts in the Migration Period. P. I. Galindians, p. 97 Gimbutas, Marija (1963). The Balts. London : Thames and Hudson, Ancient...
69.8% was East Slavic, 17.5% was Turkic, 1.6% were Armenians, 1.6% were Balts, 1.5% were Finnic, 1.5% were Tajik, 1.4% were Georgian, 1.2% were Moldovan...
genetic cluster, along with Balts, Germanic and Baltic Finnic peoples (Northern Russian populations are very similar to Balts). The 2006 Y-DNA study results...
as opposed to Black Ruthenia, which was predominantly inhabited by pagan Balts. An alternative explanation for the name comments on the white clothing...
Tacitus around 98 CE. Some modern historians believe he was referring to Balts, while others have proposed that the name then applied to the whole eastern...
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